Jeffrey L. WilsonAmazon Music UnlimitedAmazon's standalone streaming music service provides an intriguing alternative to the many competing products on the market, especially for people who own Echo or Fire TV hardware.

Amazon's standalone streaming music service provides an intriguing alternative to the many competing products on the market, especially for people who own Echo or Fire TV hardware.

Amazon Music Unlimited just keeps trucking along. Initially, Amazon's reentry into the streaming music space with Music Unlimited didn't impress us. After all, this is a category with many options, including the Editors' Choice award-winning SiriusXM Internet Radio and Spotify. We were, however, quickly swayed by Music Unlimited's varied prices, library, and Amazon Echo, Fire TV, and Tap compatibility. Music Unlimited doesn't drastically change the streaming music landscape, but it does offer standout features that warrant a look, especially if you own one of Amazon's Alexa-powered products.

The Amazon Music Unlimited Price Structure

Like Apple Music and Tidal, Music Unlimited forgoes a free version and charges the industry-standard $9.99 per month for its ad-free Individual plan. Note, however, that Amazon Prime subscribers receive a discount that drops the fee to $7.99 per month (or $79 per year)—on top of their $129 per year Prime fees. No, Music Unlimited isn't included with a Prime membership. Amazon Prime Music is. More on that below.

Amazon also offers a $14.99 per month (or $149 per year) Family Plan that covers six people. This offering rivals Apple Music, Deezer, Spotify, and Tidal's similar packages. A 30-day free trial is available for people who want to try before they subscribe.

Amazon Echo, Echo Dot, Echo Look, Echo Show, Amazon Fire TV, and Amazon Tap owners receive a discount, too: they pay just $3.99 per month, which is the price of LiveXLive Powered by Slacker Radio's ad-free Plus plan. That's impressive. If you want to stream to multiple smart speakers, however, you need to upgrade to an Individual or Family plan. Amazon Music Unlimited's voice-controlled device plans come with one big limitation. You cannot use them to stream music via apps or a web browser; you must use one of the aforementioned devices.

Students receive a discount that drops the Music Unlimited fee to just $4.99 per month. Even better, Prime Student members enjoy six months of access for an incredibly low $6—that works out to a mere dollar per month! Apple Music, Spotify, and Tidal all offer similar deals.

Amazon Music Unlimited does not let you record audio. If you want that unique feature, check out SiriusXM Internet Radio, the Editors' Choice for streaming audio services focused on live audio.

Amazon Music Unlimited vs. Amazon Prime Music

If you're curious about the differences between Amazon Music Unlimited and Amazon Prime Music, I'll break it down. Amazon Music Unlimited is a standalone streaming music service that offers more than 50 million music tracks. Amazon Prime Music, on the other hand, is bundled in your Prime subscription and offers 2 million songs. Both are ad-free listening experiences and are available on numerous devices.

If you don't care too much about music, and just want to dabble in it here and there, Prime Music is a decent option. That said, you'll notice that some tracks and albums encourage you to sign up for Amazon Music Unlimited to hear them. For example, you cannot stream Taylor Swift's Reputation with Prime Music.

Signing up for Amazon Music Unlimited causes the service to replace Amazon Prime Music as your Amazon jukebox, so you needn't worry about launching the wrong streaming service.

DJ Alexa

The increased library size makes Music Unlimited infinitely more interesting to use with Amazon devices. In the past, I'd often grow frustrated with Echo's inability to stream songs in their entirety due to licensing issues. Now, I can command an Echo, using the Alexa voice-control technology, to fire up the Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Suck My Kiss," and it does so without issue.

Amazon's smart gear also deliver behind-the-scenes commentary, dubbed Side-by-Sides. For example, you can ask Alexa to "play Side-by-Side with OneRepublic," and Ryan Tedder comments on songs from the band's newest album. The Killers, U2, Norah Jones, and Kongos also provide Side-by-Side content. It's reminiscent of LiveXLive's DNA stations, but without the deep historical context that connects past and present musicians.

In addition, you can use an Amazon device to search for songs by lyrics, fire up playlists, and search for songs to match your mood. It's really cool to command Alexa to play up-tempo happy music and have the Echo blast the "Pop To Make You Feel Better" playlist.

Music Library

Music Unlimited boasts more than 50 millions songs and dozens of stations in its catalog, plus the expected Classical, Decades, Rock, and Hip-Hop stations. In a nice touch, any Amazon Prime Music playlists that you've created in the past carry over to Music Unlimited. You can, of course, create new ones, too.

Several areas built into Music Unlimited's interface are designed to help you discover or buy music. In almost every part of the layout, you'll find recommended albums and playlists that are based on your listening habits. Thankfully, these suggestions don't feel forced upon you. In fact, I find them helpful.

The left navigation menu contains sections for Purchased and Imported music. The former has Amazon Music-purchased tracks that you can stream or download. The latter houses the files that you uploaded to Amazon's servers using the Amazon Music desktop app's now-defunct music uploading feature.

I was pleased to see "Immigrant Song," "Whole Lotta Love," "Black Dog," and other Led Zeppelin classics appear on screen after keying the band's name into Music Unlimited's large search box. They're the real tracks, too, not tribute works by bands no one cares about (though those also show up in the search results). The tracks sound good, as they stream at a clear, 256Kbps bit rate. This lags behind Tidal's Premium (320Kbps) and HiFi (non-compressed, 1,411Kbps FLAC) plans, however, but you'd probably need to be listening to a better speaker than you get with an Amazon Echo to hear much difference.

Music Unlimited has one of the best uses of lyrics I've seen in the streaming music space. Instead of offering a static page like Deezer, Music Unlimited has karaoke-like scrolling music that moves in time with the lyrical performance. It's really cool, and I'd like other services to adopt similar lyrics integration.

Otherwise, however, Music Unlimited is relatively bare-bones. You don't get Tidal's in-depth feature stories or concert tickets or SiriusXM Internet Radio's live radio. In an era when streaming music services are attempting to stand out in a crowded field, Music Unlimited could do much more.

Mobile Apps

As previously mentioned, Amazon Music Unlimited has apps for both Android and iOS. I tested the Android version on my Google Pixel XL smartphone and discovered that it closely duplicates the Music Unlimited desktop experience. The app contains copious playlists, useful recommendations, and a music store for making purchases. It contains lyrics, too.

In addition, you can use Amazon's Alexa tech to search for songs by lyrics or play tracks. For example, when I asked Alexa for dinner music, it supplied a laid back, easy listening playlist.

Magical Sound Shower

Amazon Music Unlimited is a worthwhile streaming music service, and that recommendation rides almost entirely on the back of the service's Alexa, Echo, and Fire TV features. If you don't have one of those smart devices, I would suggest you fire up SiriusXM Internet Radio or Spotify, our Editors' Choice winners. But if you own one of Amazon's gizmos, you should definitely give Music Unlimited a listen.

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About the Author

For more than a decade, Jeffrey L. Wilson has penned gadget- and video game-related nerd-copy for a variety of publications, including 1UP, 2D-X, The Cask, Laptop, LifeStyler, Parenting, Sync, Wise Bread, and WWE. He now brings his knowledge and skillset to PCMag as Lead Analyst.
When he isn't staring at a monitor (or two) and churning out web h... See Full Bio

Amazon Music Unlimited

Amazon Music Unlimited

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